Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-27

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Write about the following topic:

In many countries, family members work together in their family business.

Do you think family businesses have more advantages than disadvantages?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

It has been seen in many nations that family members prefer to work in their family business. This has it's own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that it helps to expand the business at a much faster rate and is a secure source of income for the upcoming generations. Disadvantages are it usually creates rifts between family members often making things ugly.

On the one hand, family businesses can grow quickly. This is because multiple hands help to develop things faster and with a greater strength, because everyone working in the business are immediate family who will ensure that the business runs smoothly and doest not incure any loss. For example, a person building a new company by themselves will face alot of challenges than a person who has their family contributing towards the business. Furthermore, it creates a security for the upcoming generations. Many businesses try to hand over their legacy to their kids. This creates a financial security where the children do not have to worry about starting from scratch.

On the other hand, family business often sours relations between family members. It has always been seen and heard that family business usually tear apart easily. This happens when the members have different thinking from eachother which often leads to misunderstandings and fights. Moreover, the greed of money and jealousy sees no relations which eventually breaks down the business. For example, the family war between Ambani Brothers costed the loss of a profitable company called Reliance Energy.

In conclusion, I feel even though the businesses are sucessfull i believe the disadvantages outwiegh the advantages becauses of the fights.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response7.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of family businesses and provides a clear personal position in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are extended with relevant reasoning and a specific example involving the Ambani brothers and Reliance Energy. However, the development in places tends to be slightly brief and relies on generalisations, such as stating that multiple hands help to develop things faster without deep elaboration. Furthermore, the phrasing 'doest not incure any loss' represents a slightly simplistic view of business realities. Despite these minor limitations, the main prompt requirements are fully met, earning a solid Band 6.5, rounded to Band 7.0 for addressing all parts with a clear position and supporting examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a clear overall progression and logical organisation. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, moving appropriately from the introduction to the advantages, the disadvantages, and a concise conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'Furthermore' are used effectively to guide the reader through the argument. However, referencing is occasionally imprecise, such as 'This happens when the members have different thinking', where the pronoun reference is slightly loose. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, but the heavy reliance on basic transitional markers prevents the response from reaching higher bands where cohesion is more subtle and flexible. Overall, the organizational structure is clear and coherent.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate and generally appropriate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms like 'financial security', 'upcoming generations', 'misunderstandings', and 'profitable company'. Less common vocabulary is attempted, such as 'sours relations', 'tear apart', and 'greed of money', showing some awareness of collocation and style. However, there are notable lexical errors and awkward word choices, including 'it has it's own' (apostrophe error), 'doest not incure' (spelling and collocation error), 'face alot of challenges' (informal and spacing error), and 'costed the loss' (ungrammatical verb form). These errors do not impede communication, placing the response firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses ('who will ensure', 'who has their family') and conditional or concessive structures ('even though the businesses are sucessfull i believe'). There are several grammatical and punctuation errors present throughout the text, such as 'It has it's own' (incorrect possessive pronoun), 'everyone working in the business are' (subject-verb agreement error), 'alot' (non-standard spelling), 'different thinking from eachother' (awkward phrasing), and a lack of capitalization and punctuation in the final sentence ('sucessfull i believe outwiegh'). While these errors are noticeable, they rarely impede overall communication, allowing the reader to follow the arguments without significant strain, which aligns with the Band 6 descriptor.

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